John Gibson

Virginia's governor, John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore, traveled to Pittsburgh, which Virginia claimed as part of its territory, to appoint government officials under the Virginia charter. In 1774, the Virginia assembly separated the western portion of Augusta County's territory and formed the District of West Augusta.

TRANSCRIPT OF ORIGINAL LETTER FROM THOMAS JEFFERSON TO GENERAL JOHN GIBSON. PRESENTED BY GEN. GIBSON'S DAUGHTER TO WM. ROBINSON.

Philadelphia, Dec. 31, 1797.

Sir

I took the liberty the last summer of writing to you from hence, making some enquiries on the subject of Logan's Speech, and the murder of his family, and you were kind enough in your answer among other things, to correct the title of Cresap who is said to have headed the party, by observing that he was a Capt and not a Col. I trouble you with a second letter asking if you could explain to me how Logan came to call him Col. If you have favored me with an answer to this it has miscarried, I therefore trouble you again on the subject, and as the transaction must have been familiar to you, I will ask the favor of you to give me the names and residence, of any persons now living who you think were of Cresap's party, or who can prove his participation in this transaction either by direct evidence or from circumstances, or who can otherwise throw light on the fact. A Mr. Martin (Luther Martin, Attorney-General of Maryland, married a daughter Captain Cresap.) of Baltimore has questioned the whole transaction, suggesting Logan's Speech to be not genuine, and denying that either Col or Capt Cresap had any hand in the murder of his family. I do not intend to enter into any newspaper contest with Mr Martin; but in the first republication of the notes on Virginia to correct the Statement where it is wrong and support it where it is right. My distance from the place where witnesses of the transactions reside is so great, that it will be a lengthy and imperfect operation in my hands. Any aid you can give me in it will be most thankfully received. I avail myself with great pleasure of every occasion of recalling myself to your recollection, and of assuring you of the sentiments of esteem and attachment with which I am dear

Pages 349, 350 - John Gibson was born at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, May 23, 1740. He received a classical education, and was an excellent scholar at the age of eighteen, when he entered the service. His first campaign was under General Forbes, in the expedition which resulted in the acquisition of Fort Duquesne – afterward became Fort Pitt – from the French. He hen settled at Pittsburgh as a trader. War broke out in 1763 with the Indians, and Gibson was taken prisoner at the mouth of Beaver in what is now Beaver county, Pennsylvania, together with two men who were in his employ. They were, at the time, descending the Ohio in a canoe. One of his men was immediately tortured at the stake, and the other shared the same fate as soon as the party reached the Kanawha. Gibson, however, was preserved by an aged squaw, and adopted by her in the place of a son who had been killed in battle. In 1764, he was given up by the Indians to Col. Bouquet, when he again settled at Pittsburgh, resuming his occupation of trading with the Indians. In 1774¸Gibson acted a conspicuous part in the expedition against the Shawanese, under Lord Dunmore; particularly in negotiating the peace which followed. It was upon this occasion, near the waters of the Scioto river, in what is now Pickaway county, Ohio, that Logan, the Mingo chief, made to him the speech so celebrated in history. On the breaking out of the revolution, Gibson was the western agent of Virginia, at Pittsburgh. After the treaty held in the fall of 1775, at that place between the Delawares and the representatives of the Shawanese and Senecas on the one part, and the commissioners of the American congress on the other part, by which the neutrality of the first mentioned tribe was secured, he undertook a tour to the western Indians in the interests of peace. Upon his return, he entered the continental service, rising, finally, to the command of the 13th Virginia regiment, at Fort Pitt, in the summer of 1778, he having previously seen service east of the mountains. He remained at that post from that date until the close of the war, having several times the chief command, though temporarily, of the fort and its dependencies. For his services, a Virginia military land warrant was issued before December 31, 1784. He remained in the west and was a member of the convention which framed the constitution of Pennsylvania in 1790; and, subsequently, was a judge of Alleghany county, that state; also a major-general of militia. He was secretary of the territory of Indiana until it became a state, and, by virtue of his office, was, at one time, its acting governor. He died at Braddock’s Field, in Alleghany county, April 10, 1822. At the time of his death, he was a pensioner under the act of March 18, 1818.

Biographical/Historical Note: Soldier and Indian trader on the Pennsylvania frontier, 1758-1782; post-Revolutionary War Alleghany County, Pa., judge and militia officer; and secretary of the Indiana Territory, 1800-1816. From 1781-1782, Gibson was commanding officer at Fort Pitt.